


See the Stars

by Giraffic_Park



Series: Darkness and Light [5]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aged-Up Peter Parker, F/M, M/M, POV Third Person Limited, Peter Parker being a Mature Adult, Peter Parker standing up for himself, Tony Stark Fucked Up, Tony Stark trying to fix his fuck up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22298731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Giraffic_Park/pseuds/Giraffic_Park
Summary: "Peter, this is making you miserable. Find out from Happy when is a good time to corner Tony for a talk..."Tony is still doing a great job screwing up. But, at least he's trying to fix it.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Series: Darkness and Light [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1434157
Comments: 9
Kudos: 86





	See the Stars

"Dude, what?" Ned gaped at Peter. "You had him asking you on dates and giving you suits – and you're, what, telling him to go back to his old girlfriend?"

Peter spun around in his chair. "No. I told Pepper that Tony's still in love with her and she should talk to him."

"But why?"

Peter sighed. "Because, Ned, he's still in love with her. And until he's really ready, as much as I want it, I can't." He shrugged. "I can't, Ned. Not if even he doesn't know what he wants." It sucked. And it would be hard as hell to move on, but he still felt it was for the best.

"But I thought he wanted you. You guys were like doing stuff, right? Like dates and things?"

Peter nodded. "We were," he agreed. "And it was fun." He smiled. "But he – he isn't always there, if you know what I mean."

Ned nodded and sipped his soda. "So, now what?"

"I don't know. I guess I wait."

"For what?"

"Tony to grow up." Peter spun his chair around again.

* * *

Peter was in chem lab when he got the latest text. He shoved his phone into his bag and went back to watching his beaker of liquid. Tony had been sending him photos of the latest designs for his newest Iron Man suit. Peter was interested, but not when he was in class. And not when he was at the library studying for midterms. And not when he was on dates or out with friends.

Half the time, he didn't reply – usually because he was busy. The other half, if he did reply, Tony would keep texting back stats and data and asking Peter questions about different design elements. It would be fun and interesting if it wasn't Tony's version of a high school crush.

How was Peter the mature adult between the two of them?

He was willing to let it go for the most part, since it was easy to ignore. Until Tony texted him five times while Peter was on a date with a classmate that he really liked. She was pretty into him too, until his phone nearly danced off the table. Peter had tried to apologize, but the mood was sufficiently ruined.

I'm going to strangle him, Ned," Peter growled and webbed his ceiling light until it went dark.

"What'd he do this time?" No need to even mention a name, they both knew.

Peter webbed the wad of webbing and yanked it off the light. "Ruined my date with Gwen."

"Didn't he do the same thing the last time you had a date?" Ned pulled the Spider-Man mask over his head.

"Yes," Peter hissed. "And when I went to that frat party. And the pool party. And that time you and I went to the movies."

Ned leaned forward. "Are you sure he hasn't been possessed by a fourteen year-old girl?"

Peter snorted. "I'll check with Happy." He let out a frustrated noise. "I just – geezus – I need him to leave me alone for five minutes."

"Did you tell him that?"

The frown that bent Peter's face almost hurt. "Several times. It didn't work. It hasn't worked. He's the most defiant man in history."

"But you still like him?"

"Yeah. I just – he's supposed to be with Pepper. And I don't want to get in the middle of that. She's nice. And she loves him. But if he keeps doing this shit," Peter held up his phone, "she's going to leave him. And it'll look like it's my fault."

Ned seemed to be thinking about something for a bit. "You could tell Pepper."

"Hell no. That's how you end up on the wrong side of everyone."

"Tell Happy?"

"Maybe. He might be able to curb some of Tony's impulses." Peter webbed the ceiling and dangled himself upside-down. "Why is this so complicated?"

"Because you're too chicken to block him?"

Peter laughed mirthlessly. "I've blocked him five times. He just has FRIDAY undo it."

"That's kind of illegal."

"Yeah," Peter sighed, "and I'd report it if it was anyone else."

"But not Tony?"

"Nah. Pretty sure he thinks I don't know he's doing it. And fucking with him is fun."

"You realize that brings you back down the maturity scale, right?"

"Fuck off, Ned."

* * *

Tony flipped the welding mask up when Happy approached the shop. "Hey, Hap."

"Morning, sir. You got a minute?"

He nodded and set the torch aside. "Sure. What's up? Something serious by the looks of it."

"Yeah. Look, Tony, I don't know how to say this, but, it might be in your best interests if you eased back on your communication with the kid."

Tony frowned. "Which kid?"

"Mr. Parker," Happy whispered.

Tony gave him a withering look. "And why would I be doing this?"

"Well, what would Ms. Potts think? Or the press? I know you don't always care what they think of you, but they could make things really tough for Peter."

"I see your point. So, what, like once a day then?"

"Tony -"

"Fine." Tony held up his phone and scrolled through the contacts. "I can just delete him. Then I won't bother him at all."

Happy tried not to visibly sigh. "Tony – you're not bothering him."

"There," Tony said, "archived away. FRIDAY, keep that safe for me."

"Sure thing, boss," the AI piped up.

"You're being petulant, Tony."

Tony turned on Happy, glare in his eyes. "No. I'm doing what he wanted but was too afraid to ask me himself. Now, get out of here. I have work to do."

"That isn't why he didn't come to you -"

"Get out."

"Tony -"

"Get. Out."

Tony waited for Happy to leave, then he picked up the welding torch again. He asked FRIDAY to store all of the Spider-Man projects, then flipped his mask down and went back to work.

* * *

"When's the last time you heard from him?" Ned asked and handed Peter a sandwich from his bag.

"That day I called Happy. So, like three months." He sat across the table and opened his soda.

"Weird."

"Yeah."

Ned unwrapped his sandwich. "Is he okay? I mean, like, did he get hurt fighting bad guys or something?"

Peter shrugged. "Not that I've heard. Happy would've told me. He's not dead. Just, not talking to me."

"Maybe it's for the best. Isn't this how they always talk about those high-maintenance women or something?"

Peter threw a fry at Ned and hit him in the nose. "No. Maybe. But I already knew he was high-maintenance."

"What do you like about him anyway? Aside from him being Iron Man and your hero crush since you were three."

"Shut up!" Peter threatened Ned with another fry. Then, after a bite of his sandwich, he answered. "He's smart. And, I mean, like brilliant-smart. He builds all kinds of stuff. Plus he created the AI that runs the compound – and the one that used to run his house. He likes art and music. And he listens when I babble about things that go over everyone else's heads. We talk about science stuff and it's really fun and intellectual."

"But you just called it 'science stuff'."

"Ned," he groaned.

"Sorry. I get it. How much do you miss him?"

Peter quietly picked at the edge of his sandwich. "A lot," he muttered.

He hadn't seen Tony since a couple weeks before he'd stopped texting. He'd had May invite Tony and Pepper to Thanksgiving, but they'd declined. He'd tried to text and call Tony a couple times over the last few months, but never got a response. He was sure he'd have to break down the man's door to get him to talk to him.

"You should go over there."

"Right. And when Pepper comes to the door – 'Oh, hi! It's me, your friendly neighborhood relationship killer. Mind if I talk to your boyfriend about why he isn't talking to me?'"

"Yes. That's exactly it," Ned deadpanned. "Peter, this is making you miserable. Find out from Happy when is a good time to corner Tony for a talk. Or, you know, make an appointment." He took a hearty bite of his sandwich.

A wicked smirk spread over Peter's face.

"What?" Ned asked expectantly around his mouthful of sandwich.

"I have an idea."

* * *

"Mr. Benjamin, you have an impressive resumé," Tony said to the next applicant entering his office. "But tell me, why should we give the internship to you?"

"Because I had it last year and was one of the best you ever had."

Tony turned around to face the very, _very_ familiar voice. "I'm calling security."

The man across the desk smirked at him. "How do you think I got in here? Everyone in security loves me."

"Why are you here, Peter?"

Peter settled into one of the guest chairs. "Obviously not earning my way back into your good graces."

"No. You're not. Why are you here?"

He leaned forward. "I haven't seen you in four months, Tony. Haven't heard from you in at least that." He sat back in the chair. "I thought we were friends."

Tony was ready to throw the kid out still, until his voice choked there at the end on 'friends'. What the hell was going on? "I thought you wanted me to leave you alone. Isn't that the message you had Happy deliver?"

Peter stared, stunned, across the desk at him. "No. I said that the _volume_ of messages was excessive. Not that I wanted them to stop."

"So? Why not just tell me?"

"I did," the kid said flatly. "A few times."

"Oh. Really?" Why didn't he remember that? He hadn't thought he'd been that enthusiastic with his messages to the kid.

Peter nodded. "Tony, my aunt doesn't text me as much as you. I had to block your number to stem the tide." He sighed. "Which only worked until you unblocked it. By the way – don't let the FCC know you can do that."

"You blocked me?" He sounded affronted, but he knew the kid had. He just hadn't realized Peter'd figured out that Tony could undo it. Something new to work on.

Peter rolled his eyes. "This is why I told Happy."

"Now you're mad?" Tony knew he was being deliberately obtuse. He had wanted to talk to Peter. But he was upset that the kid had cut him off. He'd just been getting to a really interesting part of his new design and wanted to bounce ideas off someone who understood what he was talking about. Peter's request had meant he didn't have that.

"No, Tony. But you ruined no less than three dates for me. Plus countless other social events because you kept texting me. It was super disruptive."

"I – I thought you wanted to know what I was building."

"I do. But I also want my life. And to not have a panic attack when my phone buzzes thinking the world's in danger."

"Oh. I can fix that last one – I won't call you for that. You're not one of the Avengers."

Peter sighed again and looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes. "You're missing the point. And proving that you didn't listen to me before. So, thank you for the opportunity, Mr. Stark, but I think you should give the internship to someone else." Then he got up from the chair and started for the door.

Tony watched him. "Ms. Potts will let you know soon."

He canceled the rest of the interviews for the day. He wasn't in the mood.

He wasn't in the mood for Pepper haranguing him either. She stormed down to his office all 'What did you do?' And when he told her, she asked if he'd found the right candidate.

"Peter came in," he said.

"What? He wasn't on the list. But he'd be a shoe-in."

"He used a fake name so I wouldn't know it was him," he said solemnly to the window. He knew Pepper would understand why that would hurt. He was also pretty sure she wouldn't be happy. Though, he was pretty proud of the kid for getting in without him knowing about it. Most people couldn't do that.

"Tony," Pepper's tone was softer now, "what did you do?"

He spent the next several minutes recapping the 'interview' with Peter and the events that led to it. The texts, the conversation with Happy, the radio silence – all of it. Truthfully, not talking to Peter had made him miserable. He liked having someone gush over science theories and facts and plausibilities with him. Especially with Bruce off somewhere out of touch again.

When Peter had walked into his office, he had felt it. Hard. Seeing the kid's face again was good for his mood. He'd thought Peter might have actually been an intern applicant wanting to surprise him. Yes, even though he'd threatened to call security on the kid.

He knows that wasn't the image he projected to Peter. And, looking back, that was probably a bad move.

"Wait," Pepper said, "you were texting him a lot and when he asked you to cut back, you deleted his number?" She stared at him, stunned for a moment. "Don't you think that was a bit, I don't know, extreme? For a friend."

"I did what he asked," Tony countered.

"Tony, even you don't believe that." Pepper blew out a breath. "He looks up to you. It would be in everyone's best interest if he wasn't looking up to a petulant child."

Tony blinked at her. "Why are you defending him?

She smiled softly. "He's why we made up."

"What?" How – and when – the hell had that happened? "What did he tell you?"

"It doesn't matter. Peter adores you. And he made me remember why I do too. Are you really upset that he fixed your relationship?"

He shook his head. Pepper walked over, put her tablet down on the desk, then settled on his lap. He slid his arms around her. "Can we keep him?" he asked.

She tipped her head back with a laugh. "He's not a puppy," she said. "But I think you should put some work into repairing your friendship. Which includes respecting boundaries." She leaned down and kissed him. Then slid off his lap. "I have work to do because of you. So you have all afternoon to do your homework."

He hated it when Pepper was so damned right about things.

* * *

Peter and Ned walked into the one class they'd managed to schedule together and took their usual seats in the back corner by the window. They were chatting about some modifications Peter wanted to make to his web-shooters when the professor announced they had a special speaker today. Not a big surprise, Professor Ludwig liked guest speakers.

Peter tried to shake off Ned's incessant tapping at his arm and glanced to the front of the room. _Oh shit._ He immediately tried to make himself as small as possible. Why wasn't invisibility his superpower?

"What is he doing here?" Ned whispered.

"Tormenting me," Peter replied and covered half his face with his hand. "Kill me now," he muttered.

Tony Stark leaned casually on the large desk at the front of the room and, somehow, managed to look at Peter without actually looking at him. "So, let's talk hypothetically about the Sokovia Accords," he began.

"They were a terrible idea," someone near the front piped up.

Someone else countered that they were a good idea, but poorly executed.

"Good, good," Tony encouraged. "Keep going with that."

The discussion waged on, with Ned and Peter getting involved where they had points to make. Someone made angry remarks at Tony directly. The bastard deflected them as coolly as anything else and steered the conversation back to the legislation itself and the philosophy behind it.

Honestly, the whole discussion was really good. Peter had fun with it. And was pleasantly surprised at how much of an ass Tony wasn't. Several of his classmates were still having a lively and pleasant debate as they filed out of the room at the end of class.

"Mr. Leeds, Mr. Parker," Tony addressed he and Ned, "might I have a word?"

Ned gaped at Tony as though he was surprised the man knew his name. Peter tried to look more bored than annoyed. "Can we help you, Mr. Stark?"

"Yes. I'm still looking for interns and was wondering if either of you were interested."

"Nope," Peter answered. "Gotta go." He slung his backpack over his shoulder.

That seemed to jar Ned back into reality. "You have a free period right now. We're getting lunch.

Peter sighed.

"Oh, sorry. Um, I'll meet you there. Bye, Mr. Stark."

Stranded, Peter waited. "Talk fast. There's another class in here in about five minutes."

"Can we go somewhere and talk?"

"No. Say what you need to say."

Tony seemed to struggle for a moment. "I'm sorry," he said. "You put up boundaries and I ignored them."

Peter pressed his lips together. "You know, I can't figure out how every time we talk, you're apologizing to me for something stupid."

"I fuck up a lot. It's a talent."

"Maybe try something new. I gotta go." He started for the door.

"Pepper told me what you did for me. Maybe I should have started with 'thank you'."

Peter turned around. He needed a better hobby than dealing with Tony's shit. "What?"

Tony closed the distance between them so he could keep his voice low. "You convinced Pepper to work with me. To fix our relationship. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did," Peter said. "You – you still love her. And I knew that. Still do. If nothing else, you need to figure out that relationship. She's been good for you, Tony."

"What about you?"

Peter shrugged. "What about me? I'm moving on."

"Not waiting?" Tony looked hurt.

"For you?" Peter asked with a bit of a snort. "Even if I am, I'm not going to watch life blow past me while I do." He frowned at Tony. "Are you expecting me to save myself for you? Because you already took that. And beyond that, it's too late anyway." He started for the door again, but turned back just as the first students for the next class started trickling in. "Are you wanting me to do that out of selfishness or fear, Tony?" Then he left to find Ned and get some lunch.

* * *

He swung from building to building, loving the feel of the air beneath him as he flew. The night air was still cool, as the season was beginning to head into spring. This was one of his favorite times of year.

Past the Empire State Building, then down to the next building. He alighted on a ledge and looked out over the city. He loved it up here. Patrolling for criminals wasn't always fun, but swinging around the city was awesome.

It was good for getting out of his head for a while. It had been a week since Tony had been the 'guest speaker' in his philosophy class and he was trying to stop analyzing that conversation afterward. Tony had texted him a couple times about some new tech he was working on, but that was all. Peter was okay with that. He liked having conversations with Tony.

But he also wanted to separate himself from him. Not entirely. Just push back to friend-level. He was trying.

Frowning, he turned around when he sensed something approaching. He rolled his eyes and sighed. So much for distance.

"Hi, Tony," he greeted flatly.

"You're hard to track, Pete."

"What do you want?"

Tony leaned a hip against the building ledge. "To talk. And we seem to do better on rooftops without an audience."

Peter flipped over a ledge and landed on the roof in front of Tony. "Okay," he said and tugged the mask off his head.

"You asked me if my request for you to wait was selfish or fear."

Peter nodded. "Yeah." Where was Tony going with this?

Tony looked nervous, which was different. Then he surprised Peter even more when he said, "I think it's a bit of both." When Peter's response was a confused expression, Tony continued. "I'm selfish. I don't want anyone else to have you."

Peter blinked at Tony. "Um – that's actually kind of scary."

"I know," Tony agreed. "I'm – I guess I'm jealous, but that's more being afraid. I think."

Peter crossed his arms over his chest. "That's not really helping." He was getting concerned about being alone with Tony. He was strong and fast, but Tony had weapons.

"Sorry." Tony rubbed hand over his face. "I like you – obviously. I'm with Pepper, which complicates things. My ego very much wants you to wait and pine for me – I can't believe I just said that. But, the mature adult part knows I can't ask you to do that."

"Uh huh," Peter said. "Less scary." What the hell was going on?

"Let me see if I can make this make sense. I want to have both Pepper and you. And I know I can't. But I'm – I don't want to choose."

It was the most honest thing he'd heard Tony say to him in months. "You did choose. You chose Pepper." He held up a hand to stop any protests. "You also chose to stop talking to me entirely when I made a valid request for you to back off a little. It was a childish response. And when I confronted you about it, you blamed me for the way you acted. That wasn't on me. That was on you. And you need to acknowledge that. Your response was not normal. I get that you're scared, but you can't control my life."

He watched Tony – the man seemed to be thinking. That was good. Thinking was good.

"Dammit," Tony said with a sigh.

"What?" Peter asked, giving Tony a bit of a side-eye.

"I owe you an apology."

He was right. Peter was still surprised he'd said it.

"I probably owe you more than one. I'm sorry, Peter. I reacted strongly because I was afraid you were pushing me away. I'm an asshole. Which is exactly what you told me you didn't want. At this point..."

"Stop," Peter said. "I get it. Thank you." He was still super confused about all of this, but Tony was being an adult, so it was harder to be angry.

"Okay. So, where does this leave us?"

Peter had to grin a little. "I'd like us to remain friends. Like we were before the lab incident. We were good then. I liked that relationship."

Tony nodded. "I can live with that."

"Can you?" Peter asked. He wasn't trying to be argumentative, but he needed to be sure. "You didn't do so well before."

"No, I know. I'm good. As long as we can still talk."

"Of course we can talk. But I need you to chill. If I don't respond immediately, don't blow up my phone. And if you need more than three texts – use email."

Tony frowned at him. "When the hell did you grow up so much?"

Peter grinned at Tony. "When you had your head up your ass."

"So, age five then?" Tony teased.

Peter nodded. "Sounds about right." When Tony stepped in close and hugged him, Peter added, "We're not there yet," as he hugged back.


End file.
